Politicians relish comic’s needling

No matter how hard members of Congress who appear on the “Better Know a District” comedy segment try to beat the system, Stephen Colbert makes them end up looking silly. But several lawmakers said doing the spoof spot on “The Colbert Report” on TV’s Comedy Central actually has raised their profiles back home, particularly among young folks.

“You have to have the right attitude,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey, Georgia Republican, whose 11th District was featured on the cable show in April.

“It’s a comedy show; he’s a comedian, and you’re not,” he said. “Even though I tried to be funny, all my funny stuff ended up on the cutting-room floor. I just had to leave hoping that when they slice and dice and put it all back together again, I wouldn’t look too stupid.”

Indeed, any publicity is good publicity.

Mr. Gingrey, whose thick mustache was admired by Mr. Colbert, who asked to stroke it, said there was an unexpected byproduct of doing the show — attention from young constituents and House staffers.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon had a similar experience when his 3rd District was profiled in May. “I had never watched it, but I was stunned at the number of e-mails I got almost instantly,” the Democrat said.

But Rep. Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat, regrets his appearance and called Mr. Colbert a “third-rate” comedian.

“It was a stupid waste of time, and he is two stooges short of a good routine,” Mr. Frank said.

Still, the segment is among the more popular on “The Colbert Report,” a spin-off of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” with more than 1 million viewers.

Mr. Colbert so far has targeted 25 members in the 435-member House, splicing and dicing sometimes two-hour-long camera sessions into five-minute clips.

Mr. Blumenauer said his appearance was fun, even though the two argued about global warming and Mr. Colbert called him “an America-hating terrorist-lover hiding behind a stupid bow tie.”

“We tend to take ourselves too seriously in this business,” Mr. Blumenauer said.

Several lawmakers said that although their staffers prepped them with clips of past segments, they were not prepared for Mr. Colbert’s creative editing.

Mr. Colbert recently hazed Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a Republican from Georgia’s 8th District, for not writing a single piece of legislation during his nearly two years in Congress.

However, Mr. Westmoreland co-sponsored a bill that would require the Ten Commandments be displayed in the Capitol.

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